


I Think Maybe Love is Kinda Like the Upsidedown

by Delightfully_Goblin



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Steve is lesbian ally of the year, Useless Lesbians, bisexual!Nancy, gay relationship in the 80's, lesbian!Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:46:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delightfully_Goblin/pseuds/Delightfully_Goblin
Summary: The Winter Break after the Battle of Starcourt, all Robin has on her mind is keeping her and her new best friend Steve from getting fired from the job they scored at the video rental. Except a newly broken up Nancy comes back from UCLA in need of some friends. What Robin never would of predicted is it turning into more than that. In a story about first love, coming of age and overcoming trauma, Robin will have to learn what it means to truly love someone.
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, this is the first time I've written a fan fic so I'm guessing it'll be a fun experience. I can check that one off my bucket list. I was trying to think about possible romantic story lines for Robin and this is the one I decided on. Hope you have as much fun reading it as I have writing it! I'm hoping to get a chapter out a week on Tuesdays.

PROLOGUE

There was sure a lot that Robin didn’t expect from this past summer. If she made a list it might be the longest one she’s ever seen. The top ones probably being, A) Being interrogated by evil Russian Men B) Becoming friends, even best friends with fucking Steve Harrington, C) Coming out as a lesbian for the first time. D?) The person she came out to was Steve Harrington, and not only that but, it was because he was into Robin, yet he reacted amazingly? E) the 14 year old girl with super powers F) Maybe the part where Dustin actually did have a girlfriend from summer camp and they sang that song from Never Ending Story. None of it made any sense whatsoever, which is why none of it seemed very real.  
Except there Robin was, standing outside StarCourt Mall, maybe it was the drugs or maybe it was the sounds of ambulances and helicopters, but everything felt so surreal. Did all of that really just happen?  
“You OD over there?” Steve asks, he looked at her with this half smile, “I remember my first time dealing with this stuff you know your super brave your like-”  
“Hey dingus be quiet,” Robin looked down at her feet, “I need a minute.”  
“Understandable.” Steve says.  
Robin sat down. God she was tired. This had been a day that was way too long. This whole summer has been. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep, though she wasn’t sure she could do that. Sleep anyway. Plus what would she tell her parents. She was covered in bruises. Oh Hey Mom and Dad I just got interrogated by Evil Russians! I almost died earlier. How was your guys’ day? Maybe she’d stay the night somewhere else. But where? Robin suddenly started to wonder if she needed medical attention. Who knows what was in that stuff the Russians gave her and Steve.  
“What did you do after your first time with all of this stuff.” Robin asks looking up at Steve. He sat down next to her,  
“Well the first time I didn’t even get that beat up. But the second time, I was looking after the kids and Billy….” There was a pause, Billy had died pretty brutally back there in the mall.. “Well Billy he was looking for Max and he was going to beat up Lucas for god knows why…”  
“Wait which one is Lucas?” Robin asks, “Sorry I’m new.”  
“The one with the sling shot. Well anyway I tried to defend him but I just ended up getting totally destroyed. I think I would have died if Max hadn’t...Well I ended up staying the night at the hospital and when my parents asked where I was I told them I was at Tommy’s.”  
“What do you think I should do?” Robin looks scared, that was new, she was usually so good at keeping that sort of thing to herself. The ambulance sounds were getting so loud, and the lights from the mall were all too bright and-  
“Hey you can always stay at my house if you don’t wanna go home right away.” Steve says.  
“Thank you dingus,” Robin says, not looking at Steve but instead the reunions of everyone else, all these poor kids dealing with all of these adult insane batshit things. “I think I’ll take you up on your offer.” She got up. “Well we should probably make sure that none of that stuff back there is going to actually make us OD.”  
“That’s...that’s probably a good idea.” Steve shot up, giving a helping hand to Robin. As they walked across to where the paramedics were, Robin saw the girl with super powers. She thinks maybe Dustin told her her name was El. She’s hugging Jonathan Byers’ mom. There were rumors that the police chief died. Robin felt a deep pit in her stomach. What they went through, Dustin, Steve, Erica and Robin, it was nothing compared to Max and El who’d just lost a family member.  
Nancy Wheeler was in front of them in this small line of people who were involved in this whole thing that night waiting to get medical help. Nancy wasn’t too banged up like some of the others. Just a few cuts here and there. When she saw Robin, she wasn’t able to dissect what exactly the look she gave her was,  
“Robin, right?” Nancy asks.  
Robin jumps, surprised someone like Nancy would even talk directly to her even at a time like this. “Yeah.”  
“I think I remember seeing you in some of the plays at Hawkins. What was the one with the guy with the band and the-?”  
“Oh the Music Man?”  
“Maybe.” Nancy says, she looks at Robin and then at Steve and then Robin again. “I’m guessing you too are together now?”  
Robin laughs, a big long laugh. It’s not like it's an absurd assumption, It’s just it’s kind of awkward. With the fact Nancy and Steve had dated for a while and all. “No definitely not.”  
“Ok well…” That’s when Nancy makes eye contact with Jonathan Byer’s he’s across the way limping a little. She forgets about the line and runs into his arms. Robin looks back at Steve who looks a little uncomfortable.  
A paramedic looks up and down at Steve and then to Robin. “So what are we working with here.”  
“God where to begin.” says Steve.  
_________

The two of them end up at Steve’s house, and Steve's parents and his little sister are asleep. They try to make it up the stairs quiet enough that they don’t wake anyone up. Robin is sure Steve has had girls over before, but she’d rather be spared from the awkwardness. They make their way upstairs and end up in Steve’s room.  
With a flick of a light switch Robin is met with the most teenage boy space possible it's walls are plastered with sports illustrated swimsuit editions covers, it’s not very clean and it could definitely smell better, it smells like the boys locker room. One where the boys all forgot to wear deodorant. It's a total pig sty, but Robin is just happy that she has a place to stay but she sure as hell won’t show it.  
“Is this how you actually live Steve?”  
“Oh like I’m sure you’re much better.” Steve looks through his dresser  
“You know you’d be surprised.” Robin says eyeing Steve. He pulls out a pair of pajama shorts and a T-shirt with Fraggle Rock characters on it.  
“Oh my god is that?” Robin’s mouth is open.  
“Shut up.” Steve says.  
“I’m just... how did you even come in possession of that?”  
“It’s…” Steve threw the shirt and the shorts over to Robin. Despite being a very bad catch, she's able to catch it. “Just you probably wanna change out of what you've got on, so here.”  
“Thank you for your generosity dingus.”  
“Anytime.”  
Robin walks into Steve’s bathroom. She put on the clothes and folded her uniform. It's weird to look at. She never wanted to put that dumb sailor outfit on again. She opens a cupboard above the sink and found a pillow and a blanket. It was small but it would do. She walked out with it.  
Steve was sitting on the edge of his bed, if Robin wasn’t mistaken he looks almost scared, on edge. The ends of his mouth twitch. He's looking out the window to his pool.  
“Steve you doing all right?” Robin asks.  
Steve looks startled, “Uhh yeah totally for sure.”  
“Ok.” Robin keels down and places down the pillow and blanket to the floor, moving away the dirty laundry there.  
“Robin you don’t have to...I can sleep on the-”  
“Steve? It’s fine.” Robin says tucking herself in. “Goodnight.”  
“Goodnight.” Steve replied, he turned out the light.  
Robin doesn't sleep much that night. Caught up in her own thoughts which would come in and out. She almost died today. Almost fucking died. She was high out of her goddamn mind and it didn’t seem like much but it was setting in. She thought of how her mom and dad would have felt if she hadn’t made it out of there. Would the people from Hawkin's lab even tell them what had actually happened? They seemed to have a bad track record with that. The thought of even that made her cry just a little. But she wasn’t going to wake up Steve with that, so she tried to keep it down and close her eyes. She tried to think of anything else.  
____________

Robin had never actually been to many sleepovers besides cast party ones and Marching band monthly post game ones. She definitely had never had one at a boy’s house, with only her and said boy. The minute she sat down for breakfast she realized how suspicious it was that she was wearing Steve’s clothes. Steve’s Dad broke the silence,  
“So how do you and Steven know each other?” He asks.  
Steve looked at Robin with a smile, “Oh we work together at Chips Ahoy, this is Robin.”  
Steve’s little sister looked around the age Dustin, has a big smirk on her face. “And why did you spend the night in Steve’s room?”  
Steve’s mom gasps, “Rachel!”  
“What?” Rachel rolls her eyes almost all the way back. “I’m just asking!”  
“That’s very rude of you.”  
Steve’s Dad looks Robin up and down, “Son, why was this girl in your room?”  
“Well she uhh…” Steve scrambles for an answer.  
“My parents are out of town and I don’t like being home alone and Steve here was nice enough to let me stay over.”  
Steve perks up, “Absolutely right that is what happened!”  
“God you're covered in bruises.” Steve’s mom says staring at Robin.  
Rachel goes into a giant fit of laughter. Oh god she thinks that-  
“Oh I...well I was trying to carry some ice cream out of the fridge and I didn’t want to take trips so I took a bunch at a time and I fell right on the floor.”  
“Yeah sometimes Robin doesn’t think things through.” Steve shrugs. Robin elbows him in the side.  
“Ow.”  
“Well it’s nice to have you Robin. Steve hasn’t had any friends over for a long time.”  
“Yeah friends.” Rachel says, her braces filled teeth beaming. “For sure.”  
“Ignore her.” Steve glares over to his sister.  
________

Steve gave Robin a ride home, when he parks the car in front of the one story blue house with a ford in front, he looks at her with a worried and caring stare. “Are you going to be okay?”  
“Gosh you really have little faith in me don’t you dingus?” Robin opens the car door.  
“Hey I’m trying.” Steve says, “Want me to walk you up?”  
“Thanks for the offer but I don’t want anyone else to think I slept with you.”  
“Understandable.” Steve nods.  
“Thank you by the way.” Robin pulls him into a hug, she isn’t sure if she planned it or if it’s some strange reflex. Steve’s eyes open wide, but then they turn soft. She feels his face go into a smile, “Anytime.”  
Robin steps out of the car and with some form of courage knocks on the door. It’s her mom who answers. She’s in her flight attendant uniform, wasn’t this one of her days off?  
“Where were you Robin I was worried sick your father and I both.”  
“I stayed the night at Tammy’s.” Robin lies. “She met me after work and we rode our bikes over to her place.”  
“Please just give me a call next time. I’m happy you’re okay though.”  
“Hey mom?” Robin says.  
“Yeah?”  
“I love you.” Robin pulls her mom into a hug. It’s been a while since she’s done that.  
“I love you too.” Robin’s mom pulls away. “You’re needed in the kitchen, your father is doing one of his crossword puzzles and one of the words is in Spanish.”  
“On it.”  
God after everything that’s happened it feels great to be home.


	2. 2 - A New Scoops Ahoy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! I have a scene at the end of this chapter that is taken directly from the show. I do not own it. Hope you enjoy :)

AUGUST  
One of the weekly routines that Robin has taken up over the years is a quick stop at the comic book store. It ended up always landing on Saturday because Tammy used to work there then. But Robin hadn’t talked to her in a very long time. Not since that night after The Music Man. But even with what had happened, Robin was not going to let some dumb girl, which Steve brought up an excellent point, has a terrible Muppet-esk singing voice, ruin something she liked. Plus she didn’t even work at the place anymore. And she wanted to hang out with The X-men for a little while and that was exactly what she was going to do.  
She parks her car on main street, and walks in. Robin hadn’t really talked to her friends from school that summer, so she wondered if they would be there too. If they might confront her on why she never showed up to anything. She felt bad she couldn’t make it to the 4th of July show for marching band. However, when she walks in the only person she actually recognizes is Nancy Wheeler. She feels an obligation to talk to Nancy, after all, she’s probably having a hard time with the Byers moving and all. It seems like her and Jonathan are close. Soulmates or something along the lines of that. Part of Robin has always wished she had something like that.  
“Hey,” Robin says sliding into the shelf Nancy is standing in.  
“Hi,” Nancy says, she turns, a little startled.  
“What brings you to a comic book store seems a little out of character.” Robin asks, because that’s weird right? That Princess Nancy is in a comic book store.  
“Are you always this friendly?” Nancy laughs, and she has a very nice laugh, “My brother he’s pretty bummed about El and Will moving so I am here looking for the one he really likes. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called. It’s the guys led by the bald guy in the wheelchair I think?”  
“X-men?” Robin asks, “That’s actually what I’m here for, believe it or not.”  
“I really don’t know which one I should get, can you help me?”  
Robin looks at her curiously, she cocks her head, “Depends on what gen he’s on.”  
Nancy sighs, “Well in that case I might as well just get him some trading cards or something.”  
“Sounds wise Wheeler.” Robin says, she’s starting to look through the X section. “You’re a good sister.”  
“Uh..thank you.” Nancy says, “I’ll see you around. 

___________

It’s been a pretty long while but sometimes things about Tammy hurt still. It’s not just her big blonde hair or her perfectly sculpted and godly jawline. It’s how things were left off too. That night, the Music Man performance, they had gotten so close. Robin was perfectly aware Tammy was in love with Steve Harrington, perfectly aware that all of this was so confusing. Perfectly aware that even though, sometimes Robin could swear she caught Tammy looking at her the way she looked at Steve in Click's, it would never happen Except that night she and her were the only ones backstage. And something happened, Robin wasn’t even sure what. It all led to a kiss maybe? It didn’t even feel like that it was so slam rushed with adrenaline. It progressed a bit from there, but once they heard footsteps, curse those footsteps, Tammy jerked Robin away. She’d almost fallen. It was pretty embarrassing.  
But the two of them never talked about it. At the Cast after party, the following days, weeks at school. When it hit a month, Robin stopped Tammy on her way out of Geometry class Ms. Clack’s. She told her,  
“I think we should talk about what happened.”  
She just walked right past her, not even making eye contact. She ran up to a boy, she didn’t even know who he was, and they made their way to the parking lot hand in hand. Robin still can feel that horrible feeling sometimes.  
_____________________

Sooner or later Robin and Steve realize that they have a problem In regards to the fact that the mall burned down. Robin had only taken up the job at Scoops in hope of affording an arts college to follow her dreams and lame stuff like that. When the mall was destroyed, she lost that job. It wasn't like she particularly wanted to go back anyway, on account of almost dying at the hand of evil Russians. However, she wasn’t going to get that money just sitting around. So Robin calls up Steve one day,  
“Hey dingus, what should we do about the whole Scoops Ahoy thing?”  
“What? Oh wait, I completely forgot about that!” Steve says.  
“You what? Nevermind. So I’m guessing we should probably start looking for a new job.”  
“That’s very sweet of you that you want to work with me again.”  
“Don’t make me regret it Steve.”  
And that’s how it begins, the search for a new job. It turns out looking for a job is way harder than it looks. Steve and Robin spend weeks looking for something. The first thing they find is a BBQ place a little ways away from Hawkins Junior High. It ends with Steve flirting with a waitress, failing notably, and them losing any chance at the job. Next is the roller rink, the interview is going great, but when they get to the part where they are supposed to show they can actually roller skate both of them take pretty big falls. The second to last job they try to get is at a record store on main street. Robin’s snark ends up getting them denied. Who cares though! Who wants to work for a woman who thinks Reagan is doing a good job as president anyway?  
Steve and Robin’s last chance is the video rental store next to the arcade. Both of them are expecting this to go like the other ones. They get out of the car.  
“You put your mom down as a reference?” Robin asks, some days she still can’t believe Steve Harrington is a real person.  
“Yeah why not, she's like, super well respected.” He shuts the car door perplexed on why Robin would even ask such a thing.  
“You’re such a dingus,” Robin says as she walks into Family Video’s oh god, Keith smelling walls.  
As if this entire experience wasn’t bad enough, they were going to get rejected by Keith. Keith! The guy that made Robin leave the tabletop games club at Hawkins High. What weirdo tries to sleep with all the girl in your campaign on the reasoning of being in character? What an ass. But this is their last chance.  
“Just to be clear we weren’t fired you know,” Robin says. “The mall burned down and like, killed a bunch of people.” Robin says thinking about how best to convince Keith.  
“Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know,” Keith says. It comes out sarcastic and dry. All anyone had been talking about was what happened at the mall for the last couple weeks. He looks up from a sheet of paper and says, “three favorite movies go,”  
Robin thinks to herself, she isn’t sure where to begin, “Uhh...The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise.”  
Keith turns to Steve, “You go!”  
Steve seems shocked that he’s being asked even though this is a job interview, “Favorite Movies?”  
“Did I stutter?”  
“Uhhh..Animal house for sure.” Steve zones out for a second, it almost made Robin wonder if he’d ever seen a movie before.”  
“Eyes on me Harrington.” Keith says mockingly.  
“Yeah uhh..Star Wars.” he suggests.  
“A New Hope?”  
“Uhh A New What?”  
“Which. Star. Wars.” Keith enunciates his words.  
“The one with the teddy bears, duh.” Steve says, what happens next is he makes a small and perfectly strange Ewok sound, that part makes Robin drop her head and laugh a little, “No? Uhh..the one that just came out. That movie that just came out. The one with the Delorean and Alex P. Keaton? And he’s trying to bang his mom. The time. Yeah those are my top 3 classics.”  
Keith changes his gaze to Robin, “You start Monday,” Keith points a finger to Steve almost touching him in the chest, “You start Never.”  
Steve sighs realizing that Keith has just rejected him. But she turns to her friend and tells him hushed, “Will you just uhh...give us a minute?”  
“Why?” Steve asks, almost frustrated.  
“Steve.” Robin whispers. Keith makes a face at him.  
Steve walks away defeated and Robin leans in once she has Keith alone, “Alright you have to understand Keith, I know his taste is a little pedestrian, but dingus has other qualities.”  
“He’s a douche bag of the highest order Robin,” Keith says disgusted Robin even suggests Steve has value.  
“He was a bit of a prick to us in high school, I’ll grant you that,” Robin admits. “But he remains, a total chick magnet.”  
“Yeah okay,” Keith rolls his eyes, “And this is relevant to me how?”  
“Uh? Earth to Keith!” Robin bangs on the counter a little. “The ladies will come in just to see him! They’ll come in in droves. Droves Keith!”  
Keith looks over at Steve curiously,  
“We sold so much ice cream that we had to get a second shipment in from Michigan. Goddamn Michigan Keith!” Robin lies, Robin smirks when she says the next part, “And these ladies are hot. They’re so very hot. And there are too many of them for little Steve He needs assistance. He needs your assistance Keith.”  
Keith thinks to himself taking a bite from a bag of chips loudly, god he was annoying. He pauses and looks at Robin, “What’s in it for you? You got a thing for him or something?”  
At that moment Steve trips over a display of Phoebe Cates from Fast Times in cardboard cutout form, almost falling but catches himself, he grabs onto it however, this takes the attention of both Robin and Keith instantly. “God dammit this is..” He looks at the cardboard admiring it for a second. “Hmmm.”  
Robin turns herself to Keith again, “We’re just um...we’re just friends  
Steve draws attention to himself again, pointing at the cardboard cut out, “Oh!” He says like he put together a very hard puzzle, “Fast times! Ever heard of it? Top 3 for me Keith.”  
Robin starts to laugh hysterically. Whatever was going to happen next she was sure it would be fun.


	3. The Tree

DECEMBER

The job was fun, everyday at 4:30-8 Robin got to spend time with Steve. Dustin and Erica came by after school sometimes and God was it December already? It was summer just a second ago.  
Just Dustin came to the video rental today. He and Steve were talking about something, at times Robin hardly even knew,  
“I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I think Susie is mad because I don’t know up to at least the 30th digit of Pi.” Dustin says, he’s slouched in a chair doing Biology homework.  
“I don’t know what you could even do, you're a total catch, you know,” Steve says, “Did you try the pick up lines I gave you.”  
Dustin looks defeated at him, “Yes.”  
At that moment Keith comes busting through the storage door, “Harrington how many times have I told you not to let your lame middle school friends hang out here.”  
Steve gasps, “Dustin is not lame. And he’s in high school.”  
“Plus he’s like us Keith he’s a nerd,” Robin says as she looks up from a magazine she’s reading.  
“Hey!” Dustin says  
“Just trying to help,” Robin tries to reason and then proceeds to go back to her magazine.  
The sound of the bell goes off next. Nancy Wheeler walks into Family Video, shaking, eyes wide and out of breath.  
“Demigorgon.” she says it’s almost hushed like she’s scared it’ll sneak up on her, “On my way to go pick up.”  
“Wait, slow down you saw a demigorgon or a demi-dog?” Dustin asks, completely drawn away from his homework.  
“A demigorgon like from D&D?” Keith asks.  
Robin jumps over the counter and starts to walk over to Nancy, “Shut up Keith. Nancy whatever you saw out there we’ll deal with it.”  
“I feel bad for the asshole who decided to open up the Upside Down again. Shit how many times have people done that. You’d think they’d learn by now. ”  
“The Upside down? What do you mean ‘the Upside Down’?” Keith asks  
Steve, Robin and Dustin all turn around in unison, “Shut up Keith!”  
“It was by the stop sign on the way to Lucas’, I was on my way to drop Mike off and-”  
“Hey Keith?” Robin gets the keys to the video rental from her front jean pocket and throws them to Keith who misses. “We’ll be back probably never catch ya later.  
Dustin, Steve, Robin and Nancy run out the door. 

_______  
The air is cold and pinches at Robin’s skin, she really wishes that she had worn a jacket a very very large cozy jacket. But if there was another absolutely terrifying thing lurking around Hawkins, the temperature outside was the least of their worries.  
“Where did you think you saw it?” Steve asks, he’s putting his hand through his hair looking around the clump of grass with one big tree in the middle.  
“It was around here in the middle I swore it was just here.” Nancy says  
“Maybe it went into the forest.” Robin suggests nodding her head to where the trees start.  
“Or into the neighborhood.” Steve says.  
Dustin fake coughs to grab the group’s attention. “Or it was just that tree.”  
Dustin motions to a white tall tree that looks like it has arms, it all starts to make sense.  
Nancy puts her hands into her face. “Oh my god I’m so stupid.”  
From the looks of it, it seems like maybe Nancy’s is about to cry. Robin has never prided herself on the ability to comfort other people, this was something Steve was good at. She should probably just let him take the lead. Except for some reason he wasn’t. The three of them drove back in silence, Nancy looking out the window ever so often she looked like she’d just been thrown off a cliff.  
_______

When the four of them got back to Family Videos, Nancy was sitting on a bench zoning out. She snaps out of it when Robin sits next to her.  
“Hey,” says Nancy, not quite looking at Robin.  
“Hey.”  
There’s a bit of silence at first before Robin asks, “Bad day?”  
“How did you know?”  
“It wasn’t too hard to put together. You know I have cracked insanely complex Russian codes before. I guess I can crack Nancy Wheeler too.”  
Nancy laughs, “I heard. Yeah it wasn’t the best week actually. I went to go visit Jonathan at NYU and it was nice at first, the whole first day actually. I’m not entirely sure what happened. We just couldn’t stop fighting and it was like neither of us knew what it was about. And it just hurt because we used to be so golden. I used to think we were soulmates. Like this perfect little life where we get married and have kids and sometimes we'd just look at each other and think aloud we did it. But on the last day he broke things off it's not like he did it in a really mean way, he wants to stay friends, but I’m not sure if I’ve stopped crying.”  
“That’s rough.” Robin says and it’s kind of awkward, it actually makes Nancy get up.  
“Shit I shouldn’t just be dumping all of this on you I barely even know you.” Nancy says,  
“Don’t sweat it. Hey you know what if you ever wanna rant about anything and I mean anything give me a call.” Robin opens her purse, takes out a crumpled up recite and a pen and scribbles her phone number down. “I have too much free time anyway.”  
Nancy takes it, “Thank you Robin,” and she walks away


	4. The Waiter at the Italian Restraunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Sorry for the late upload. Schools starting to pick up like crazy. But here you go! New Chapter!

“Ok, she’d totally go out with me if I asked right?” Steve says he’s looking over to a girl in the documentary film aisle, elbows on the counter, and his face like a cartoon character with heart eyes.  
“Follow your dreams dingus,” Robin says, she’s restocking some new T-shirts behind them. “You’re the hottest guy here.”  
“But I’m the only guy in the store right now,” Steve says  
Robin smiles at him and the girl starts to walk toward them. Her hair is in a tight bun and she has a tote bag that says, Hawkins Skating Rink.  
“Ice skating huh?” Steve says, “I know a whole lot about that,”  
Steve winks, but before Robin can watch the rest of the scene go down, the phone rings. So Robin goes to pick it up.  
“Family Videos you’re speaking to Robin, how can I help you today?”  
“Hi, this is Nancy actually....I-”  
Before Nancy could finish Robin hung up, and she wasn’t even sure why she did. Something about it just freaked her out. She was incredibly embarrassed by her big reaction, which only made it worse. She sunk onto the floor.  
Steve turned around from his flirting, “Who was that?”  
“Uhhh, Nancy…” Robin says.  
“Nancy Wheeler?” Steve asks, “Huh.”  
And they went on with their day. Robin tried not to think about it. The last thing she needed was a developing crush on Nancy goddam Wheeler.

***

Robin’s family likes to go to this nice Italian place for birthdays and celebrations and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes, they liked to go just for the heck of it. Today was one of those days. Robin, her mom, dad, and grandma all sit at the patio table. Her grandma smokes a cigarette every so often.  
“How many times do I have to tell you, mom?” Robin’s dad says. “You really shouldn’t be smoking at your age.”  
“That’s all just a bunch of hobgoblin Rick and you know it.” Robin’s grandma says, “God your generation and your science. I can’t believe your thinking of letting Robin into that field I’m sure there are no job opportunities at all.”  
“I’m actually planning on going into music.” Robin says, “I wanna go to art school.”  
“God that’s even worse.”  
“Mom!”  
The waiter came over. “What can I get you all started on?”  
The waiter was bald and had big-ish ears. He looked around his 60’s unlike the others, he was wearing an army green dress shirt; it wasn’t much but it was enough to set Robin off. She stopped moving and thinking of much entirely. Her brain started to play that night in the Russian Base again.  
"Don’t touch him!  
I think your friend needs a doctor. Good thing we have the very best.  
Bastards let us out of here!"  
Some of the things after that Robin didn’t even think she could remember without bursting into hysterical sobbing. Which she did not want to do in front of her family or in front of everyone in this restaurant. She had to get out of this.  
“I’ll have Capelli d’ Angelo with meat sauce, please. I gotta go to the bathroom.” Robin says and she darts out and doesn’t come back. Instead, she gets into her car and goes to the only person she thinks could understand. 

***  
As soon as Robin gets in the car her breathing becomes fast, she wondered if she was dying. A memory definitely shouldn’t kill someone, but it sure felt like it. The sun was way too bright from her view in the car and so was the light green truck in front of her.  
"Where were you two going? Why don’t you try telling the truth next time, yes? It will make your visit much less painful."  
And then the sound of Steve’s scream, sometimes when Robin saw him her brain went back to how he looked when those bastards put that syringe of god knows what into his neck. He was so scared and in that moment there was nothing Robin could even do. She was so useless, so helpless. She gets to Steve’s house and when she knocks on the door, thank god it’s him and not his parents or Racheal. Though Robin didn’t exactly think it through if it had been.  
“Robin?” he asks, “Are you?”  
Robin falls into his arms, sobbing deep and powerful sobs. She’s surprised they didn’t knock him over.  
“Shhh, it’s ok what happened?” Steve holds her in close.  
“Some stupid waiter he looked like one of those Russian guys and I don’t even know why but I couldn’t handle it. I’m so stupid.”  
“No, you’re not stupid. That’s totally valid Robin. why don’t you come in.”  
She nods. 

***  
Steve’s room is slightly less messy this time, and Robin wonders why.  
“Oh, we’re having family over tonight. You know my Aunt Susan just cut her hair short I think she might be gay too, you two should totally meet up sometime.” Steve says.  
Robin laughs, Steve Harrington never ceases to put a smile on her face.  
“Is that so?”  
“Yeah,” Steve says, he gives her a glass of water and puts a blanket around Robin and, who’s calmed down a little now. “You doing any better.”  
“I guess.”  
“You know it’s completely understandable I’ve had some similar stuff.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah, this one time I was picking Racheal up from karate lessons and-”  
“Racheal does karate?”  
“Yeah dangerous right, and so this Dad was waiting to pick up his kid and I swear to shit he looked so much like that one guy, you know the one with the glasses and the mustache, yeah..that one. I almost punched him in the face. I felt so bad.”  
“Nice to know I’m not alone in my crazy.” Robin sips her water. Then Steve’s mom walks in.  
“Oh, Robin?” She says, “Nice to see you again. Does your mom know you’re here?”  
“Yeah.” Robin lies.  
“You can stay for dinner if you want we're having some people over if that's ok.”  
“Steve mentioned that and it's alright I already ate.”  
“Ok, you two have fun.” Steve’s mom smiles, “Let me know if you need anything.” she closes the door.  
“Your mom is so nice dingus,” Robin says  
“Yeah for sure,” Steve says sitting down.  
“I should probably call my mom, she’s probably like why did Robin storm out of dinner was it because grandma was making fun of her career choices?”  
“Probably a good idea.” 

***  
When Robin does get home, she gets a phone call.  
“Robin it’s for you but this person sounds like they’re in middle school.” Robin’s mom says.  
“Got it!” Robin jumps off the couch and puts her comic book on the coffee table. She answers the phone. “Hey, it’s Robin Buckley.”  
“Hi, it’s Dustin. Big crisis, Max is out of town for the month and we need a new dungeon master. No one else will do it, not even Will. And the only other person is Steve and I doubt he'd do it. This is a very dire mission please say yes.”  
Robin laughs to herself, “Is that it?”  
“Yes.”  
“I’ll be there.”


	5. Robin the Dungeon Master and The Letterman's Jacket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late upload....again. School is kind of crazy right now. So...there is that. But ok like the pictures that came out from the set of Robin in the suit? Chef's kiss.

It was a Saturday morning and Robin woke up to the sound of her Dad calling her to help with his crossword puzzles, instead of her alarm clock.   
“I’m coming,” Robin says, one foot out the door in her pajamas. And when she gets down the stairs, she asks, “What is it this time? Latin?”   
“No Russian.” Robin’s dad says, “You do know Russian right?”  
Robin nods, but it is hesitant.   
“Is something wrong?”  
“No no I’m just a little rusty on Russian,” Robin says. She takes the crossword puzzle from her dad and opens it to the page. “It’s pytka it means torture.”   
God, why were things always like this? Was the universe trying to mock her? Was that its goal?  
"Are you sure you look a little.."  
"No, it's fine I just wasn't expecting getting up this early." Robin looks at her watch, “Shit I gotta get to work, Steve’s gonna kill me.”   
Robin’s mom looks up from her newspaper. She’s sitting on a recliner, towards the end of the living room. “You’re getting pretty close to that Harrington boy huh?”  
“Sorta, yeah. No time to talk! See ya later.” Robin says, she runs out the door and then steps on the gas loud enough, the whole neighborhood can hear her car. “God, how late did I sleep in?”   
***  
Today was the first day of the D&D campaign. Before Robin left work Steve, who was starting to tragically grow a mustache had said, “You’re actually going to play D&D with a bunch of kids?”  
“Dingus all of your friends are like five years younger than you, you're one to talk.”  
"Fair point." Steve says, "Have fun storming the castle."  
"Haha, nerd!"   
Robin did get to the Wheelers though, and after a quick interaction with Nancy’s mom, she made her way to the basement.   
As soon as she walks in Lucas turns to the party and says, “You brought in HER as Max’s replacement? Isn’t she like Steve’s new girlfriend?”   
Dustin with a hand to his chest says, “Robin is actually really cool. We fought evil Russians together. Plus she knows a lot about D&D.”   
Robin sits down at the head of the table in between Dustin and Nancy’s little brother, Mike, and she realizes then that yeah, maybe it is a little weird to be playing D&D with a bunch of kids. Robin, whose legs are a little too big for the chair she’s sitting in, which she notices Mike is also facing the same problem, opens her journal.   
“Ok so let’s get started,” she says, “In the magical land of Hawkins-dor there is an orc king and an elf king who are constantly at odds…”

***  
“You can’t do that!” Mike says.  
“Who says I can’t?” Robin smirks, “I am your dungeon master dingus.”   
“But I just fought the Slaadi this is so uncalled for!”  
“Are you scared?” Lucas asks with an arched eyebrow. “You know I’m starting to like you, Robin. You are the first dungeon master to make Mike fight someone.”   
Robin smiles. "Roll for initiative Wheeler." She wishes she had friends like this, but she wonders if she ever really could. Real friends anyway. It’s hard when you know you’re hiding something so huge from them. Something that could come out at any moment and will someday. Robin did plan on living with a partner someday. But this whole lesbian thing, it was something that could just ruin everything. Or the small amount of everything she had. Except for Steve maybe. It was hard because Steve understood but there was no way of knowing if anyone else would.   
Nancy walks down the stairs just then, “Hey Mike? Mom wants you to...Oh, Robin. What are you doing here?”  
“Duh...uh...dungeon Mastering.” Robin stutters. God, why was she so dumb sounding.   
“That was fun that one time Mike made me do it. I wore a costume and everything remember?”  
“You? Dungeon mastering? Really.”   
“Yeah. Hey by the way I wanted to show you something, maybe talk after this?”   
“Yeah for sure,” Robin swears she almost drops her journal. “I’m basically done, I can come right now.”   
“Ok...awesome.”   
***

Nancy Wheeler’s room is a lot different than Steve’s. First of all, it is the cleanest space Robin has ever seen. That could be because Nancy has been at UCLA for the last few months, or because she is an incredibly tidy person. It was probably the ladder. The room is pink with white furniture and the only other colors come from the pictures on her corkboard wall over her desk. The desk is the messiest part with paperwork still from college apps, makeup, hair spray, and photographs that couldn’t fit on the corkboard wall.   
Robin was always under the impression that Nancy had a lot of friends, at least way more than her. But her pictures were only with two or three other girls. One of them being the girl who died a few years ago. Barbra Holland. It was only recently that Robin even found out that she died because of the upside-down. That must have been hard for Nancy and Robin had never thought about that before now.   
All Robin could say was, “Your room is really clean.”  
“Thank you,” Nancy says, “Well I came up here to give you this.” Nancy hands her a letterman’s jacket. “I’m sure Steve’s got a new one by now but I thought I should probably give it back and since you two are together now…”  
“We’re not together.” Robin says, “He’s just my best friend.”   
“That’s how it started with me and Jonathan,” Nancy looks off. This is still a sore subject for her. But there's still some nostalgia for it.   
“Oh trust me it’s nothing like that,” Robin says and she almost laughs. Maybe Nancy isn’t so scary after all.   
“How did you guys meet anyway?” Nancy asks, she sits on the floor and invites Robin to sit down too.  
“Well, that’s kind of a funny story,” Robin says as she sits down. “You see my Scoops Ahoy partner was supposed to be Yolanda Perkins I don’t know if you know her but she’s like this total math whiz and we sort of already knew each other because we were in band together in junior high school. But I show up to work, on my first day of summer and it’s Steve Harrington. I actually couldn’t believe it. I was like oh god I have to spend all summer trying to get this dingus to figure out how to scoop ice cream correctly. And he was SUCH a dork to all the girls that came in. Oh my God, it was so funny. But now he’s like my best friend, and shit, I don’t know if that would have happened without the whole Russian thing."   
"I guess those end of the world things do that to a person."  
"Yeah. For sure."   
“I met him, Steve, at Hawkins’ orientation,” Nancy says, “I thought he was so cute you know. He had that big hair even when we were freshmen. And he said to me, when we first met, ‘Hey beautiful what are you up to.’”   
“He really said that? Like he said that as an opener?”  
The two of them laughed and when it was over Nancy asked an awful question, “Well, are there any boys you are interested in?”  
Robin gulped and it was probably audible which was awful. “Yes, there is this one guy…”   
“Oh? Who is it?”   
Robin tried to skim through the five boys who were in Hawkin’s theatre program. “Ken Foley?”  
“Him? You know he’s probably homosexual right?”  
Robin was being dumb, so dumb, “Is that ok?”   
“What? Being homosexual? I guess I’ve never really met one.”   
Maybe she shouldn’t be the first gay person Nancy meets, Robin decides to keep it to herself. Oh fuck, what if just mentioning it made Nancy already know. Shit, she probably blew her cover.   
“Cool.” Robin looks outside, “God, what time is it? I told my parents I was going to be home by dinner.”   
“You better get going then.” Nancy laughed.   
“Yeah.” Robin picked up the letterman jacket. “Thanks for hanging out. You’re actually really cool. It's nice to get to know you.”   
“Anytime, thanks for noticing that I'm cool.”   
“See you around?”  
“See you around.”


	6. Pillow Screams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

Something was charming about Dustin’s friends. They fought all the time, but you could tell that amongst it there was some kind of shared comradery and maybe even love between them all. All of them understood each other because of what they had gone through. But right now they were focusing on something else, much more important,   
“Ok, what do I roll to seduce the daughter of the Orc king?” Dustin asks hands on a di 20.   
“He can’t do that!” Mike says, “That would totally disrupt the narrative flow of the campaign.”   
“Well, I feel like Dustin should let his bard follow his romantic dreams.” Robin says, “Roll for over 12.”   
Dustin rolls a 14. “Yes!”  
“Would you like to roleplay this scene?” Robin asks.   
“Yeah I feel like you really should,” Lucas says in a way where it seems like he wishes he had a camera with him.   
“If you insist. Now Lady Iz-”  
“Hey guys Dustin’s mom is here,” Nancy says making her way to the table.   
“Shit,” Dustin says.   
“Ah, what a shame.” Mike crosses his arms.   
Robin loved when Nancy came downstairs, and she loved it, even more, when they had their one on one time. They were starting to get so close. It was nice to have her, Princess Wheeler, as a friend. 

***

It’s a Saturday when it happened. Nancy and Robin went upstairs after Dustin left because it was hard to continue the session without him.   
“Oh boy, I am never going to hook up with a film major ever again no matter how much he looks like Jonathan.” Nancy finishes her story.   
“That sounds awful,” Robin says.  
“It was.”   
“I finally gave Steve the letterman jacket by the way. He says thank you.”   
“How is he by the way.”  
“He’s doing good, the usual you know.”   
“Working at that video store must be so interesting.”   
“Yeah, it is,” Robin says. “Steve keeps on flirting with this girl from the ice skating rink and I mean she’s cute. Like really cute. She’s the kind of girl I would have had a crush on in-”  
FUCK. Dumb, stupid, dingus. Fuck. How did she even say that? Why did she do this? Robin thought maybe she’d just gotten so comfortable with Nancy that she just slipped. Except she never slipped, ever. It got quiet, and it was impossible to even interpret Nancy’s face.   
“Oh,” Nancy says. “Are you...?”  
Robin shot up. “I’ve got to go. I-I should leave”  
Robin speed walks to her car, forehead sweaty and arms shaking. Nancy didn’t stop her. She just stayed and maybe if Robin had let her, Nancy would have been there and understood as Steve did, but Robin would never know now. As soon as Robin got home she went into her room and screamed into her pillow. 

***

Steve was stocking the Science Fiction section when he finally said it, “Robin what’s up you’ve been silent like all day long, that’s weird for you.”   
Robin hands him a copy of Superman. “It’s nothing, really.”  
“I’m not so sure about that,” Steve takes the copy of Superman and points it at her. “Because you are not turning that frown upside down.”   
“It’s so dumb. You’d probably laugh at me.”   
“Robin since when have I ever laughed at you?”   
“When I tried to explain to you what a hobbit was.”  
“Besides that.”  
Robin sighs, “Ok fine, so you have how I’ve been substitute DM-ing for Max while she’s gone?”  
“I remember.”  
“Yeah well, I did something really dumb.”  
“Hey, it can’t be that bad.”  
“Well I’ve been hanging out with Nancy a bunch after and I may or may not have let the thing slip?”   
“What thing.”  
Robin gives him a look, a look like the one she gave him on the bathroom floor months ago as she hands him E.T.   
“Oh….the thing,” he says.   
“Yep.”   
“Oh shit, how did it go?”   
“I’m not sure I ran away.”   
“Well, Nancy is definitely a better taste in a woman than Tammy Thomson.”  
Robin shushes Steve with a Weird Science DVD holder. “Shhhh and I don’t like her.”   
“It’s ok if you did you know?”   
“But I don’t.”   
“I don’t know Robin, you're blushing pretty hard.”   
And if things couldn’t get any worse, the bell rings and Nancy walks in. Robin drops Weird Science and has an instinctual drive to hide behind Steve. But there is sadly no time.   
“Hey,” Nancy says, her hands are glued to her purse and her eyes too.   
“Hey,” Steve says. Robin is saying absolutely nothing.   
“Can I talk to Robin alone?” Nancy asks.   
Robin nods and follows her. Robin’s body is both sweats profusely and shaking. They go outside where they had that first little conversation about Jonathan, and the two sit down.   
“Hey, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for not saying anything last night. I mean...I should have. That was probably really scary for you. Was that the first time you came out?” Nancy asks, not even making eye contact with Robin.   
“Nope,” Robin says, she swings her arm in a fist. What was she doing?  
“Well, I’m not disgusted by it. I guess I probably need some time to process it if that’s ok. Maybe we need some space. Like I said before I’ve never met a lesbian before. That’s the right word right?”   
Robin nods.   
“Well, that’s what I wanted to come here and say. I’ll see you around I guess?”  
“See you around.”   
Nancy left. Her light pink dress met her knees, clung to her hips, and flowed to the side. She looked so pretty in it and that was not something Robin wanted to focus on right now. She walks back inside.   
“Well, how’d it go?” Steve asks.  
“I’m not sure…” Robin picks up another movie from the pile, it's Tron.   
“Well, that’s better than bad right?”  
“Yeah, I guess.”   
“Hey, I know a super great distraction. This girl from high school is throwing a party next weekend. We could go together! I assume you’ve never been to a real party before.”   
Parties, especially with Hawkins High types, were not Robin’s go to, but if it made Steve happy, which it probably would, she’d do it. “Sounds great!”


	7. Leading Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all. I might not post for a while after the next chapter (which should come out later tonight) for a little while because I'm doing a separate project for NaNoWriMo. The next chapter is a pretty big one so hopefully, it'll work as a good cliff hanger. In the meantime enjoy this short little chapter of Steve and Robin content!

Robin wasn’t much of a pianist. In fact, she had to label the letters of the keys. However, it was somehow the easiest for music composition. And if any of the music schools she was applying to was going to let her in, Robin needed to know how to put together at least something even if it was garbage. If it was anything, it was something to keep her brain off Nancy. The whole thing was still both haunting and embarrassing. But hey, soon she’d probably never have to see Nancy again anyway.   
Business at the video rental was slow, which wasn’t that of a bad thing. Robin could work on her music school portfolios and Steve could practice what he’d say when a pretty girl walked in. But even better than that, Robin got to talk to Steve hours on end.   
“So what are those? Music notes?” Steve asks looking over Robin’s shoulder at what she’s scribbling in a journal.  
“Yeah I’m applying to schools and I gotta get something good or at the very least not questionable,” Robin says eyes still glued to the paper. “It’s really hard.”  
“Why don’t you write it about your latest encounter with Nancy Wheeler,” Steve says with too big of a smile.   
Robin punches his arm and laughs almost deadpan. “Yeah. Sounds great dingus.”   
“You know what might help?” Steve asked.   
Robin turns to him, “Please anything.”   
“I know a place.”   
***  
It turned out that the place Steve knew was in the middle of Hawkin’s forests.   
“Dingus, why are we in the forest?” Robin asks.   
“For inspiration Robin. Let nature guide you.” Steve says sitting down, crisscrossed.   
“Oh my God.”   
“Hey, I dunno maybe it’ll help.”   
“You’re ridiculous.”   
“That I am.”   
Steve takes Robin’s journal. “So what are these things.”   
“Well first off this is a Treble Clef.”  
“That’s confusing.”   
Robin laughs, it’s quiet but in a way, it shows she is happy to be here.   
After that Steve asks a question that’s kind of out of nowhere, but he says it anyway, “If we knew each other in high school. Like actually knew what we were actually like, do you think we would have been friends.”   
Robin looks at Steve with a halfways smile, “Well, first of all, I’m still in high school, and secondly I mean yeah I guess.”  
“That’s very introspective,” Steve says.  
“Well, there’s no way I’d know unless we went back in time right?”  
“Yeah. I dunno I just feel like I wasted so much time being a person I never even wanted to be? Maybe I did at some point, but definitely not now. Shit, it took an interdimensional demon to finally snap me out of it. If you say this to anyone else I will beat you up but, maybe I would have been happier if I did theatre or something.” Steve looks at his shoes when he says it.   
“Oh gosh, Ms. Rosey would have loved you. We had like 5 boys total in drama and none of them could play a leading man.” Robin says  
“You think I’m a leading man?” Steve asks with a laugh.   
“I mean yeah sure.”   
“No one’s ever told me that. I always thought I was supporting cast.”   
“Hey look at you using film words!” Robin says.   
Steve smiles.   
“Steve I know that you’ve been through a lot these last few years, but I’m always here for you ok? We got tortured together, that's lifelong bond material.”   
“Thanks, man.”  
“Any time,” Robin says. “And hey I think I got some ideas for this music stuff. Also, it’s getting dark so we should probably get going.”   
“Good idea.”  
Steve gets up and brushes the dirt off of him. The two walk back to Robin’s car, telling jokes only they could understand. Robin, completely unknowing of the impending doom she was about to face.


	8. The Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *chants* Robin in suit Robin in suit TW// A character refers to themselves as a homophobic slur

Before Robin knocked on Steve’s door she took one big sigh. This is for Steve. She thought. Steve’s mom opened the door when Robin did eventually knock  
“Hi, Robin!” She says she turns around and yells upstairs. “Steve your girlfriend is here!”  
“She’s not my-” Steve yells down from his room. When he walks down the stairs, he’s wearing a button-down shirt that has the first few buttons open, tucked into skinny jeans. He has a belt too. Steve looks up and down at Robin who’s wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. “That’s what you're wearing?”  
“Yeah, I guess.”  
*** It turned out that what Robin was going to wear to the party was not what she was going to wear. Or at least in Steve’s opinion, it wasn’t. He had first gone through Racheal’s closet, which Robin had said no to just about everything. It wasn’t until they moved on to Steve’s closet that she changed her mind. It was the suit Steve had worn for his report on Hamlet Sophomore year. A plaid button-down, grey tie, and a gray pair of pants and of course navy-ish blazer. After putting it all together, Robin walks out of Steve’s bathroom.  
“How do I look?” She asks.  
“Awesome,” Steve says nodding his head.  
“Ah god, why am I doing this.”  
“Don’t worry I’ll stick by your side the entire time!”

***  
That didn’t go the way he said. Robin wasn’t even sure where Steve was. All she could see was teens and red solo cups for what seemed miles on end. It was loud too. Madonna was yelling through the speakers. To make matters even worse, for some reason, Nancy was sitting by herself with a red solo cup in hand trying not to make eye contact with Robin.  
Part of Robin wants to look for Steve and hide behind him. That or leave this party altogether. However, this other part of Robin felt that if she never talked to Nancy again out of fear she’d regret it forever. So she takes a deep breath and she walks over.  
“Hey,” Robin says.  
“Hey,” Nancy says. “About earlier when I went to the Video rental I-”  
“It’s fine,” Robin says.  
“But I just-”  
“No, I mean it. It was probably a surprise for you.”  
There is a bit of awful silence.  
“Hey, could you pass me a beer?”  
“Oh?”  
“This is the first real party I've ever been to, I might as well drink for the first time, right? You know get the whole experience. Also, I don’t really wanna be here.” Robin has to yell it, somehow it seems like the music got louder. 

***

Robin is laughing her high pitched laugh. She was drunk, very drunk. “I can’t believe I told you I was a dyke. Now I feel like I could tell you anything. Did you know I don’t know Italian I just say that because I don’t feel like Russian and Spanish are enough?”  
“Wow, that’s really embarrassing,” Nancy said tipsy and slurred. “That’s not as bad as half the stuff I’ve done to sound smart.”  
“Spill the beans Wheeler,” Robin says.  
“Well in 6th grade I told my best friend Alisha I didn’t want to be friends with her because she was making me look less smart.”  
“Wow, you were a real bitch.”  
The two of them laugh  
But then Nancy asks something. Something that Robin didn’t even pick up on the gravity of the words, but Nancy asks, “Do you wanna get out of here?”  
Robin shrugs, “Sure.”  
Robin Buckley and Nancy Wheeler leave the party without saying goodbye to anyone. Their steps were messy and their speech slurred. As it turns out the Wheeler’s house was only a few blocks away. When Robin fumbles through the door, she notices that she and Nancy are the only ones home. They walk up the stairs and into Nancy’s room. Robin plops onto the ground and Nancy follows suit.  
“You know I don’t think I’ve had a friend like you since Barb died,” Nancy says  
Robin then remembers Steve telling her at some point that whenever Nancy gets drunk she talks about Barb, it’s the only time she does anymore. Robin decides to approach this calmly, she fails, “That’s fun.”  
“You know what’s weird, she was actually my first kiss. I think I sorta liked it and that scares me.”  
Wait, What? Robin thinks  
Nancy looks off.  
“Uhhhh cool,” Robin says.  
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kiss a girl again.”  
“Oh?” Robin asks, it’s not even really a question. She just says it because she isn’t sure what she’s even supposed to say right then. Her leg starts to shake.  
What Nancy does next makes her even more nervous, Nancy grabs her by her tie and moves in incredibly close, “Wanna give it a shot?”  
There was hardly any space between them, so close that Robin was sure that she heard her gulp. “I-” Robin says.  
Just then, Nancy locks lips with Robin. And Robin knows in both the back and front of her mind what’s happening is a terrible terrible idea. Except, it feels good, like out of this world good and Robin doesn’t exactly want to stop.  
Nancy stops for a second for a breath of air and with a smirk, they start to kiss again. Except now it’s more intense. Nancy’s hands are lingering onto Robin and it makes her gasp. And oh shoot, now Robin's pinned to the ground, lying on her back. Kisses trace from Robin’s jawline onto her neck and to her collar bone. Nancy kisses her again and once it’s over Robin gets up and says to her, “This is probably a really bad idea.”  
Nancy looks straight into Robin’s eyes, “I doubt we’ll remember it anyway.” she inches closer to Robin. And Robin knows deep in her mind that this is a horrible likely regrettable decision but she moves in close to Nancy, cups her cheek and she kisses her. Nancy takes off Robin’s blazer. It would sit there across the room for the rest of the night. 

***

Robin wakes up next to Nancy Wheeler the morning after, in her bed. Oh shit. She thinks What did I do last night. When Robin releases she needs to cover her chest with a blanket, at least some of it starts to come back to her. Holy fuck I just slept with Nancy Wheeler.  
Nancy is still asleep, and Robin has no idea what she’s even supposed to do in this situation. Should she wake Nancy up and be like, "Hey we had sex please do not call me a homophobic slur." Or Should she just leave and pretend it never happened, sneak out of the house as quiet as possible. Robin ended up deciding to at least put some clothes on. She was almost dressed when in mid shirt buttoning, Nancy woke up.  
“Robin?” Nancy asks.  
“Uhhhh hey.” Robin jumps.  
“What happened last night?” Nancy says and that’s when she looks down. “Oh.”  
“Yeah.”  
“How about we just never talk about this ever again,” Nancy says.  
“Good idea,” Robin says and she means it. She gets up, takes her blazer, and gets out the door. Her tie is still untied. It’s only later that she realizes she parked at the party and had a bit of a way to walk. But regardless of what happened last night, Robin is glad that it is likely over and she’ll never have to talk about it again.  
Except it does, it happens more than once after that night. In Robin’s car, her house, once even in the bathroom of the video rental store after Steve left and it closed. Yeah, it was probably not the smartest thing to do. But it was also the best thing Robin had ever felt. And as Nancy ran after Robin on her way to her car after work and kissed her in a nearby alley way, how was she supposed to say no to that?


	9. From the Backseat of Robin Buckley's Car

When Robin was little her mom always told her that the most important thing in a relationship was communication. That was definitely not advice she had been listening to. Any of the times that Robin and Nancy met up there wasn’t much talking at all. It would almost ruin it if there was. Acknowledging any of it was terrifying. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to do it but Robin knew that she had to acknowledge it at some point.  
Business at the movie rental is slow. All Steve has done for most of the day has consisted of taking down displays from Back To The Future. It makes her feel weird to think about that movie. Robin doesn’t have many people to talk to when it comes to girl problems. There had to be a way to ask for advice as vaguely as possible, Steve had dated all kinds of girls, he had to have some words of substance.  
“Hey, Steve?” Robin asks. “Can I ask you a really weird question?”  
“Depends on what it is,” Steve says as he puts a cardboard cut-out of Marty McFly in a box.  
“Ok so hypothetically speaking if there was this girl you were constantly meeting up with, but you never talk about it. Is that bad? What would you do?”  
“What are you hooking up to do with someone Robin?” Steve teases  
“I didn’t say it was me!” Robin says. “But just hypothetically speaking.”  
“Wait. Shit who is it? Who are the secret Hawkins lesbians?”  
Robin realizes she is in a very awkward position. “If I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”  
“Don’t tell me...Is it Olivia Fisherman? I always got a vibe for her.”  
“Olivia’s on the softball team that doesn’t automatically make her gay.”  
“Oh, then who is it?”  
Robin tries and avoids eye contact with Steve as much as she can. “Remember how I left the party early?”  
“Yeah, I thought that was kind of funny. Did you know Nancy left early too?” Steve pauses. “Oh…Wait...Fuck.”  
“Yeah,” Robin says. “Please please don’t be mad.”  
“It’s chill,” Steve says he tries to smile to relieve the tension. “I’m just surprised I didn’t know she had that in her.”  
“Neither did I.”  
“Well, she doesn’t want to talk about what’s going on. That’s a red flag. As your best friend ever, I think you need a girlfriend who will acknowledge you exist.”  
“I don't think we're like...girlfriends, though,” Robin says. “How do I even...I’ve never done this before.”  
“Just be like hey what’s going on. Ya know?”

“I guess.”  
***

The back of Robin's car was crowded with comics and fast food soda cups but it wasn’t like she cared in these moments. Robin kissed Nancy back, putting a hand to Nancy's chest. But when they break away to breathe Robin sits on the other side of the car and goes to put her shirt back on.  
“Did I do something wrong?” Nancy asks.  
“No, of course not. I just. I was just talking to Steve and he thinks the two of us should talk about this if we’re going to let it continue.”  
“Steve?” Nancy’s eyes go wide, she sits on the other side of the car and she starts to shake her leg.  
“Oh, I didn’t realize....” Robin sighs, “Look, Steve is on our side, he’s the first person I came out to. I trust him. But Nancy, I like you. I think I have for a while and I just want to know if you like me too. Or I guess, why you’re doing this. I don’t seem like the type of person you usually shoot for.”  
Nancy moves in a little closer, “No Robin, I... This is hard. I’ve never done anything like this before. The scariest part is I think I like you too and I don’t know what that means. This is the sort of thing that could change my entire life and I guess that’s just scary.”  
“I get it,” Robin says. “I remember when I was realizing this stuff, it’s really hard.”  
Nancy leans in close and though it’s slightly awkward, she falls into Robin’s arms. Robin is surprised by it, she even flinches, but after a few moments, she lets Nancy sink in.  
“How the hell did you do it?” Nancy asks.  
“A lot of screaming,” Robin says. “But you get through it, not completely all the time, but you accept it.”  
“Hmmm,” Nancy says like she has a lot of thoughts going in her head. “Shit. Nancy the slut if they only knew.”  
“You know if you are a slut you are currently my favorite one,” Robin says.  
“Oh?” Nancy giggles.  
“I mean as far as sluts go…”  
“Robin I hope you know that I do really like whatever is going on.”  
“Honestly, I do too. And we don’t need to label it right now for right now that is all it needs to be.”  
Nancy moves in closer, her head falling on Robin’s shoulder. And for now, they’ll stay there awhile. 

***

The next afternoon when Nancy went to go tell Mike that dinner was ready, she heard a voice in the basement she hadn’t heard there for a while.  
“Dustin you did not roll above a 12.”  
“Yes, I did Robin.”  
“Prove it.”  
Nancy becomes overcome with a smile, a smile she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She knocks and opens the door, having no plans on closing it for the foreseeable future.


	10. The Phone Booth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are back baby!!!!

Nancy’s room was a place that never quite changed. In some ways that was what made it uniquely Nancy Wheeler. Most of the time you knew exactly what you were getting, but sometimes there would be something you’d never expect. Today Nancy was leaning over her desk looking at herself in the mirror when Robin walked in.  
“That was an experience of a campaign.” Robin says, “You should have seen what Lucas...Are you ok?”  
“Yeah just trying on some new makeup,” says Nancy not even moving her glance from the mirror.  
“Oh, are you going anywhere?”  
“No. Not that I planned”  
Robin walks closer in from the door frame, “Do you want to go somewhere?”

***

“I can’t believe you listen to this stuff, it's awful.” Nancy laughs from the shotgun seat of Nancy’s car.  
“I don’t know what you're talking about, show tunes are God’s grace of music,” Robin replies turning up Andrew Lloyd Webber  
Nancy laughs to herself, “Where are you taking me too anyway?”  
“A place.”  
“That sounds like you're kidnapping me.”  
“Maybe I am.”  
Robin parks her car in front of a small cafe. She’s the first one to get out, Nancy follows her.  
“This is nice,” Nancy says, “Pretty romantic.”  
“Yeah, my Mom and Dad used to take me up here after my concerts.” Robin opens the door to the cafe, gesturing to the inside.  
Nancy looks at her when she says this like she wants to remember this factoid about Robin. Nancy also glances at Robin in a certain way that makes her look away or maybe Robin would explode. This gesture makes Nancy smile. 

***

After getting ice cream the two went back to Nancy’s car, sitting with the back of the car open, both of them intertwined. The view of both the sunset and the forest was gorgeous. But nothing was more beautiful than this moment right here, right now. It was the kind of moment that even if it was in silence it was wonderful.  
“Do you ever think that Eleven and Will ever see the same sunset?” Nancy asks.  
“Well, they moved to Chicago not Saturn so probably,” Robin replies. "Or maybe we should be super jealous because the Chicago sunset is like ten thousand times better."  
“Yeah,” Nancy says. “I guess. How was it by the way being thrown into all of this last year? I always forget that you're new”  
“Well,” says Robin. “It was really weird at first. I’m sure you experienced the same sort of thing after you first found out about all the supernatural Hawkins stuff. It was scary too that the government was just hiding this whole thing from us. But I mean hey I got to meet Steve and I got to know you.”  
"Well, I guess it wasn't all bad then."  
"Not bad at all."  
Nancy squeezes Robin’s hand, it gives her a surge of adrenaline. She puts her head on Nancy’s shoulder. Surprised at first, Nancy accepts this and together they sit this way for a long while.  
A phone rings from a phone booth, which was confusing because no one was there and neither Nancy nor Robin paid for it. Out of sheer confusion, Robin gets up and answers it.  
“Hello?” Robin says.  
“Is Nancy there we've been trying to track her?” A familiar voice says. Eleven.  
“Nancy it’s Eleven!” Robin calls over to the car, Nancy comes running over and grabs the phone.  
“El we haven’t heard from you in months how are you?”  
“Good.” Eleven replies, “Very good.”  
“Did you tell her?” asks another familiar voice.  
“Tell me what Will?” Nancy asks.  
“What are they saying?” Robin watches as a look of shock comes across Nancy’s face in several different stages. “Holy shit what are they saying?”  
Nancy put the phone back in its spot and proceeded to stare at Robin with wide eyes. “Holy fucking shit.”  
“What?”  
“Hopper’s alive and him and Joyce are coming back to Hawkins to get married.”  
“WHAT?”


	11. Here Comes The Bride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// homophobia and homophobic slurs

Joyce Byers came down the aisle happier than Robin had ever even known her to be. Robin of course was still confused on how in the world Hopper wasn’t dead, but that wasn’t the time for those sorts of questions. All that there was, was this very deserved moment between this couple who after all this time finally had nothing holding them back.   
Robin sat next to Nancy, mostly because no one else in her family was there and also because she really really wanted to. On the other side of her was Dustin who would whisper little tidbits to Robin throughout the ceremony  
“Did you know that I was there when Joyce and Hopper first met?” Dustin would say. As discreet as possible, Robin has her hand in Nancy’s. Robin could tell she was trying her best to avert her gaze as far away from Jonathan as possible.   
But with, You may now kiss the bride, it was sealed. Tears were still in Hoppers’ eyes from the vows. 

***

“Wait I’m still confused on how you saved Will’s mom from the Russians,” Mike said to Eleven at the kids' table. Steve, Robin, and Nancy were also at the kid's table because in general, it was very fitting.   
Eleven rolls her eyes, “I judo flipped them.”   
“You WHAT?” Lucas asks, “When did you learn that?”   
“A place,” Eleven says.   
The sound of Time After Time plays throughout the reception hall. Robin notices that several of the kids have partnered up. Eleven and Mike, Lucas and Max even Dustin attempts to dance with a seemingly Beyers cousin. Nancy tries her best to nonchalantly put a hand out to Robin.   
“Are you asking to slow dance with me, Wheeler?” Robin says in a hushed voice.   
“Why don’t you follow me and find out.” Nancy takes Robin’s hand and leads her to the in-between space of the two bathrooms. There is a wall that can cover the two of them.   
“May I?” Robin asks.  
Nancy takes Robin’s waist and puts her right hand in hers. “You may.”  
Dancing with Nancy was both embarrassing and amazing. Robin had never been much of a dancer. (Despite the years of musical theatre). But being that close to her meant the world.   
Robin makes a different kind of eye contact with Nancy just then. She realizes that this would be their first real romantic kiss. Not at all sexually charged, not in desperate passion, just a sweet moment between the two. Hands a little shaky, Robin cuffs Nancy’s face and moves in.   
Kissing Nancy Wheeler was always perfect, but this time it was even better than usual. It felt like floating on your back in the ocean, it felt safe.   
But then there was the sound of someone stopping dead in their tracks,   
“Nancy?” Mike asks, “What are you doing?”  
“Nothing,” Nancy replies quickly. “I was just helping Robin fix her collar.”   
“No, you fucking kissed her.” Mike says, “I can’t believe you’re a.” He couldn’t finish that part.   
All of the wonderful color drains from Nancy’s face, she covers it and speeds back to the table. Robin’s not sure what to do. She looks from Mike to Nancy and back again. She ends up deciding to follow Nancy.   
Steve is the first one to notice there’s something wrong, “Nance are you alright?”   
Nancy feels herself losing control and can’t help but let herself cry. Robin sits next to her and without really thinking about it, puts her arm around Nancy and holds her close.   
Mike is standing nearby, “Robin turned my sister into a fucking faggot that’s what’s wrong.”  
“That’s not true how could Nancy possibly be-” Lucas starts, “She was with Steve before, right.”   
"Yeah didn't both Nancy and Robin date Steve at some point," Max adds.   
"We're just friends!" Steve and Robin say at the same time.   
“Look at them.” Mike says, “They’re being gay right now.”   
Steve stands up from his chair, “Even if she was which I have no idea, I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”  
“What are you a fag too?” Mike asks.   
“No, I’m just saying-”  
“Steve’s right,” Dustin says. “Why should we care?”  
“Because it’s gross,” Mike says. “It’s weird.”   
“Why?” Will asks, he says it nervously like a lot is riding on him defending them.   
“Why don’t we let it say something.” Mike throws his eyes like a wrecking ball over to Robin.  
Robin’s not sure what to say, “I uhh,”  
And it gets worse because Jonathan walks over, "Is everything ok over here?"  
"You're ex girlfriend is a fag." Mike says frustrated.   
Jonathan looks conflicted, something is at the tip of his tongue.   
Luckily the music stops, and a spoon being banged against a glass could be heard. For now, it was over. 

***

The rest of the reception was one of the worst two hours that Robin had ever been through. She was used to the gay rumors. She’d heard them her entire life, from the moment she cut off all her hair in 6th grade. Except Nancy probably never had. Every look that Mike made at Nancy made her feel incredibly angrier.   
“Hey, do you want to leave?” Robin asks Nancy at some point.   
Nancy thinks about it for a second. She could tell that she was wondering the ramifications. If people were to talk because they were leaving, together alone. But she looked like she was losing life too, she’d give anything to leave, “Yeah. We should probably say goodbye to Joyce and Hopper. I don’t want to be rude.”  
“Ok,” Robin says. And so they get up.   
“You’re leaving?” Steve asks.   
“Yeah,” Robin says, “While I’m gone can you tell Mike to stop being such a dick?”  
“On it.”  
Joyce and Hopper sat at a table together and they just looked so happy. Robin wondered if maybe someday she could have that open of happiness with someone she loved. She hoped so, more than anything.  
“We’re leaving early but I just wanted to say congratulations,” Nancy says.  
“What a shame, why do you guys gotta go?” Hopper asks.  
“Oh, big final essay due when the break is over I’ll fail without Robin’s help.”   
“Well I hope you two had fun,” says Joyce.  
“Bye,” Nancy waves, Robin waves too. And so they leave. 

***

As soon as they get in the car Nancy bursts into tears, and to be honest, Robin wants to too but she knows she has to be strong for Nancy right now. She thinks of something to say, the best she can come up with is, “Have you ever noticed how much Mike looks like a frog?”   
“That’s not very nice Robin,” Nancy says she’s laughing though, that’s good.  
“Well he wasn’t very nice to you so I don’t want to be nice to him,” Robin says, she wipes away a tear from Nancy with the back of her thumb, Nancy smiles.   
Robin can hear footsteps heading to the car. Her heart drops, God if it was Mike again- Instead, it was Will he let out a cautious, “Hi.”   
“Hey,” Robin says.   
“I’m sorry for what happened back there,” Will says. “That was really lame of Mike.”   
“Well I guess not everyone gets it,” Nancy says  
“So you guys are-”  
“No no no we’re-” Robin tries to save the situation, but what Will says next surprises her.   
“I wish I could be as brave as you two,” he says looking at the ground.   
“I don’t think we’re that brave,” Nancy says, “I couldn’t even face my little brother.”  
“No, you are, “Will says, “I’ve never met anyone like me before.”   
“Oh,” Robin says.  
“Yeah...oh.” Will says, “Well anyway I’ll see you guys around.” 

***

Robin offered to let Nancy stay over, the fallout of tonight sounded like a scary thing after all. But Nancy was sure she wanted to go home so she let her go. They now sat parked in Nancy’s driveway.   
“You sure you wanna go?” Robin asks with worry in her eyes.   
“Yeah.” Nancy says, “Gotta face it eventually right?”   
“I guess.”   
Nancy places a gentle and quiet kiss onto Robin’s lips and that was the last she’d see of her on that night.


	12. Girl(s) on Film

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally done with finals which means I should be able to crank out writing more regularly!

Robin thought that some distance would be good for her and Nancy. The events of the wedding were traumatizing for both of them and especially for Nancy. Robin wasn’t exactly sure how she was supposed to react. Luckily, Steve in the video rental was always a good distraction, especially now.  
“So are the elves what Frodo is or…” Steve asks with his head in Robin’s copy of Lord of The Rings.   
“No, he's a hobbit dingus. You’ve got your date with this girl in 3 days, you should probably know the differences between hobbits and elves. How’d you met this girl anyway?” Robin asks, she took the book and turned it to a chapter that takes place in the shire.”   
“Well after you left the wedding this girl came over who was really really pretty and she was like ‘what’s going on here I heard yelling’ and I was like ‘the only yelling is from my heart for you’”  
“You actually said that?” Robin laughs, “Shit, I leave you for a minute, Steve.”   
“Well speaking of which that was awful what happened back there,” Steve says.   
Robin puts Fellowship of the Ring down onto the counter and sits against the wall. “Yeah, it was.”  
“I hope you know I told Mike off once you guys left,” Steve says as he sits next to Robin, he puts his hand on her’s.   
“Thank you, Steve.” Robin says, “I wish I was like you sometimes all you have to do to have a normal relationship is study Lord of the Rings.”   
“Hey,” Steve answers. “It’ll work out. Have you talked to her since what happened?”   
“No. I thought she might need some space.”  
Steve gets up, “Hey maybe you should, come on I’ll drive you.”   
“When did you become the one who gives good advice.”  
“I’ve always been.”   
***

The steps to Nancy’s house were scary. She worried that if her mom answered she might know what Robin was. She looks back at Steve who gives her a thumbs up and a smile. Robin knocks on the door. Luckily it was Nancy.   
“Hi,” Robin says lankily.   
“Hi,” Nancy says surprised.   
“I wanted to come by to just see if you’re doing ok,” Robin says.  
“Is that Steve?” Nancy tilted her head to the left and looked at the car.  
“Hi!” Steve yelled from the car.   
“I’m sorry I didn’t come by sooner I just thought maybe you wanted some space.”   
“Robin I really do appreciate you coming over. It's just that I can’t right now. My parents know now and it’s not, it’s just not a good time.”   
“Did Mike tell them?”  
“Robin I’m sorry I can’t,” Nancy says and it’s shaking. She shuts the door. Robin turns back and begins walking to the car. Robin slides into the front seat. She takes a deep breath with her hands in her head and Steve puts a hand on her shoulder.   
“Hey you tried,” Steve says.   
“Shit,” Robin feels like she is going to cry and it was so ridiculous. There were so many times she should have cried. Times it would have been so much more valid. When she was in the mall about to die next to Steve, all the flashbacks that she had gotten after that summer. Except it was over some girl. And the tears started to come out of her eyes. She wished she could just push them back in. Steve held her in close.  
“Hey Robin it’s going to be ok,” Steve says, putting his hand through her hair. “You’ll get through it, think of everything you’ve been through.”  
“That’s the problem,” Robin says, “All the stuff and I can’t handle this?”   
“Hey think about this now we’ve both cried over Nancy Wheeler.”  
Robin chuckles. “Who would have thought when we were 16.”   
There is a nice and comfortable silence after that. Which is interrupted by,   
“Hey is that Mike?” Steve asks looking out the window.   
“Wait, it is, give me a second,” Robin says as she opens her door. She waves her arms at Mike, “Hey you!”   
“What are you doing here?” Mike asks, disgusted.   
“Well I’m here to gay this place up,” Robin says. “Which I’m sure will freak you out.”   
“Can you please just leave,” Mike says, “And I’m not afraid of you I’ve seen way more scary shit than you Robin.”   
“You’d be surprised,” Robin answers with a scoff.   
“Why do you even care about Nancy,” Mike says, “She was normal before she met you.”  
“Because I’m in love with her.”   
It gets quiet, that wasn’t something Robin was even expecting to say. She looked back at Steve, who gave her a supportive nod. Robin let out a laugh and got back into Steve’s car.   
Before driving away Robin yells out the window, “I fucked your sister Micheal you better watch out. Your mom might be next.” Mike audibly gasps and he’s gone. The only thing that can be heard is Steve's horrible pop music and hysterical laughter. 

***

“You told him you were going to fuck his mom?” Dustin asks, “I’m sure he loved that.”  
“Oh he did,” Robin says with a laugh. She tries to get him to quiet down with a shush. The video rental was extra busy today. “I just feel really bad. Nancy must be feeling so scared right now.”  
“Maybe you could get your theatre friends to do a musical number about defying homophobia together,” Steve suggests.  
“First of all dingus, a lot of the theatre program at Hawkins was shockingly homophobic and secondly, I don’t think Nancy wants anything big right now,” Robin says handing a customer their change.   
“Wait I’ve got an idea,” Dustin says, “You know how Nancy really likes to solve mysteries and how she likes crime?”  
“I’m not setting a building on fire,” Robin says, she looks over at the crime thriller section of the store and is hit with an idea.   
“I think I got it,” she says, “Call every non-homophobic friend we got I’m going to need some help.”   
“Got it,” Steve and Dustin say confused at the same time. 

***

“A VHS tape!” Robin says to her room which was currently filled with mostly 14-year-olds and also Steve.   
“What are you making? A sex tape,” Lucas asks.  
“No,” Robin rolls her eyes, “I’m going to make a super wholesome romantic video on why I love Nancy even if society isn’t ready for us.”   
“What are we here for?” Lucas asks.   
“God Lucas, can you be any more of a buzzkill?” Max asks, she walks closer to Robin. “How can we help?”  
“I’m going to need some cameramen,” Robin says. “And Will, I know you like to draw. I think I can trust you to make a cover.”  
“Can I draw a wizard?” Will asks.  
“Draw a shit ton of wizards.” Robin says, “And Steve, Dustin, you know how to convert video to tape right?”   
“Kind of,” Steve says.  
“That is good enough,” Robin says. “Let’s do this.” 

***

It took a little longer than Robin guessed it would. That was mostly because as it turned out, Steve definitely didn’t know how to convert video to tape. But at around 6 it was done. Will’s wizards and all.   
“Good luck!” Steve yells in her driveway as Robin takes off. She didn't even feel real, something told her this could not end well. That this tape would end up being the dumbest thing she had ever done. But she parked her car outside of the Wheeler’s house and she knocked on the door.


	13. The Tape

“Lucas, do you have any idea how to aim a microphone?” Dustin asks.  
“I know better than you.” Lucas sticks his tongue out. “Let the woman film, God!”  
“Ready to start?” Steve asks with a smile and a hand on the hip of his jeans.  
Robin who is sitting on a stool in front of a single bed sheet as a background realizes how embarrassing this is. She should have just done this with Steve. But Robin nods and looks down at her notes.  
“Hey,” Robin says sheepishly. Come on she could do better than that, that was pathetic, she thought. “I wanted to talk to you about something, well obviously I do that’s why I’m making this I guess I wish things were different I guess-”  
Dustin puts his face into his palm, Robin takes a pause trying to collect herself. After that she continues, “I guess that love is kind of like the upside-down. “  
Steve high fives Dustin, he was the one who came up with that line. This makes Robin smile a bit. She says, “That sounds like a pretty shitty metaphor for love, I know, but love is something I’ve never quite understood. It’s scary and when you are in it, you usually get hurt. Which, I’m sure you realize we both got pretty hurt. But Nancy I don’t think I knew what love was before I met you. So in reality love isn’t like the upside-down at all. It isn’t cold or scary, it's safe and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever known. You are one of the best things I’ve ever known. And I have no idea if you feel the same way but I don’t care if things are hard if for the most part, they suck. I just want to be with you.”  
Robin looked to the corner of her room where Will was sitting, he was watching her so mesmerized. It gave her some motivation to get through this. “When we first met in high school I would have never guessed that you’d be the person. But those are the best stories right? I’ve never been good at this sort of thing Nancy, but I think I’m starting to. I think I love you. So if you’ll have me I’d love to give this a shot, a real possibly disastrous shot. So what do you say?"


	14. Jaws Pins

When she opened the door Nancy was there and she looked absolutely terrified. This had to be one of the worst ideas that Robin had ever come up with. Nancy looks sympathetically at Robin but at the same time afraid. She opens her mouth with a “Robin look I-”   
“Listen I know things are kind of shit right now but I love you, Nancy,” Robin says, and hands her the videotape with Will’s cover. Nancy takes it.   
“Did Will draw these?” Nancy laughs.   
“How’d you know?” Robin says sarcastically.   
“I had a hint,” Nancy puts a hair behind her ear with a smile.   
“Nancy who’s at the door?” Robin hears a voice say from inside the house say.   
And just like that Nancy slams the door. Robin looks at the floor her entire way back to the car. She decided to drive straight home to spare the embarrassment of telling Steve how this all went. 

***

In retrospect, two days wasn’t a very long time but it felt like the longest two days that Robin had ever lived through. The video rental wasn’t very busy. Most kids were done with winter break and back in school. An occasional mom was looking for a movie to shut up their kid, but besides that, it was mostly just Steve and Robin.   
“So how’s that date with the Tolkien Girl going?” Robin asks, putting her hair into a bun.   
“I’m not sure how that one is going,” Steve says. “I called her and it turns out she’s really into Star Trek too and I don’t know if I really want to study that too.”   
“Hey, maybe you’d like Star Trek,” Robin says while walking into the backroom to get some more Jaws pins. “You know that might actually be your cup of tea in nerdy stuff dingus.”  
“Hey Robin,” Steve says, and with what Steve says Robin can hear the bell ring. “There’s someone here that I think you’d wanna see.”  
“Huh?” Robin asks with a box of pins in hand, but when she walks out and sees what Steve was talking about she drops them. Nancy is standing there with the videotape in her hand. Robin is a little terrified, but she tries to say something.   
“Hi,” Robin says with a small wave of her hand.   
“Do you mind if we talk alone?” Nancy asks.   
“Ummm yeah sure,” Robin says.  
Robin and Nancy walk into the backroom and between the storage and the cardboard cutouts it’s just them. It felt like a long time since it had been that way.  
“Listen,” Nancy says leaning against the counter behind her, “I’ve been a really shitty girlfriend.”   
“It’s not your fault,” Robin says, “This all must have been really confusing and hard for you I couldn't even-"  
“Robin I love you too,” Nancy says and it seems like it’s taking all the strength in her to say it.   
“Oh,” Robin says quietly.  
“And I don’t care what Mike thinks or what my parents think or whatever.”   
“Nancy I-”   
Nancy holds Robin's face and pulls her into a kiss. And it feels so easy. When they let go both of them are laughing.   
“So that’s a yes then?” Robin says, still giggling.   
“Yeah.” Nancy answers. “I guess it is.”   
Robin pulls her into a kiss this time and when it’s done she hugs her.   
“I never want to let you go again,” Nancy says.   
“Well, I promise to try and keep you around Princess Wheeler,” Robin says with a smirk.  
Nancy elbows her and they both laugh again.


	15. Epilouge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this fic all the way through and slash joining me in the experience that writing my first fic was. I plan to start writing some flash stories after this so be on the lookout for those! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this funky little story and I hope you enjoy its ending.

Nancy went back to LA after the break. There wasn’t much that Robin could do about it, and as much as she wanted to beg Nancy to stay just a day longer she knew that UCLA was waiting a few things were waiting for Robin too. The Byers hadn’t left Hawkins yet and everyone was coming to a send-off. Robin shivered at the thought of seeing Jonathan because he knew, and that was incredibly awkward. But maybe for Will at least, Robin should go.   
Robin sat shotgun in Steve’s car. He was playing some pop ballad that sounded vaguely familiar, maybe she heard it at a school dance. Although there weren't many she had even gone to. Steve was the way he always was. His sunglasses on, laughing, and his hair was extra big today.   
“Come on Robin!” Steve jabs her with his elbow. “I can’t stop this feeling anymoreeee!”  
Robin rolls her eyes with a smile that she is trying to smile, but she gives “I’ve forgotten what I started fighting for!!!”   
“IT'S TIME TO BRING THIS SHIP INTO SHORE.” Robin and Steve yell. They break into hysterical laughter.   
“You are my favorite person dingus,” Robin says, “Don’t tell anyone I said that.”  
“My lips are sealed,” Steve says.   
He parks his car at a park where everyone is talking, eating pizza, and hugging. Robin and Steve get out of the car and Robin sees Jonathan. Before Robin can avoid all eye contact she possibly can and go talk to Dustin or just about anyone else, Jonathan says, “Robin!”  
Robin turns slowly and answers, “Yes?”  
“I just wanted to let you know that I’m glad you can make Nancy happy, you know it’s been a rough patch.”  
“You could say that,” Robin replies.   
Jonathan takes a swish of his Pepsi, “I’m sorry for what happened at the wedding that must have sucked.”  
“It’s ok.” Robin says, “I’ve seen worse considering the evil other demisional monsters and everything.”  
“You’ve got a point.”  
Joyce calls over from a table, “Come on everyone let’s take a picture.”   
“See you around?” Jonathan asks.   
“See you around.”   
***  
APRIL  
Spring break came earlier than expected and on the first day of it, Robin got two things, a hug from Nancy and an acceptance letter to art school.   
Nancy had wrapped her arms around Robin’s shoulders when the letter came in the mail. As Robin sat in her chair staring at the envelope she thought about not opening it at all.   
“Are you gonna open it?” Nancy asked.   
“I guess I have to,” Robin said. She carefully undid the back of it. When she saw what it said she gasped and leaned back in her chair.   
“Did you get in?” Nancy asked.   
“Dear Robin Buckley  
We are glad to inform you that you have been accepted to the University of Music Los Angeles” Robin replied in disbelief  
Nancy turned Robin’s spinny chair around and kissed her.   
“I did it!” Robin said.  
“You did!” Nancy squealed.   
***  
JULY  
A week later Steve got accepted to Cal State LA as a sophomore to go into teaching. The rest of the year went by fast and as Robin sat in her graduation gown she couldn’t wait to fly to California. And that is why she left as soon as she could.  
Robin and Steve talked to Dustin on the phone sometime in July to tell him the news that.   
“We got a job!”  
“Oh where?”  
“An ice cream shop!”  
“Jesus Christ.”   
SEPTEMBER  
But sometime in September Robin sat on the floor of Nancy’s dorm while Nancy worked on her homework.   
“Oh and the strings kids THE STRINGS KIDS.” Robin ranted. “they have SUCH a superiority complex you wouldn't believe it and to be honest, I don’t get it. Just because you can pluck strings-”   
Nancy laughed. “I love you.”  
“I love you too,” Robin said completely content.   
Nancy slid down to sit next to Robin and leaned in close, just then Robin got a call from the landline.   
“I’ll get it,” Robin said.  
Robin picked up the phone, “Hello?”   
“Oh thank god it’s you,” Steve said. “Something bad happened.”  
“Are you ok?” Robin asked.   
“I think I’m gay Robin.”   
“What?”  
“There’s this guy in my teaching 101 class and I think….I have a crush on him.”   
“Ok Steve it’s ok, you aren’t going to die.”   
“That’s helpful I guess.”  
“Is he cute?”  
“Yeah.”   
“Is he gay?”   
“I think so.”   
“Then problem solved! Just probably don’t tell him about the interdimensional monsters or evil Russians yet.”   
“But Robin I-”  
“Steve it’s 10 pm but we’ll talk about this tomorrow I promise.”  
Robin put down the phone with a laugh.   
“Was that Steve?” Nancy asked.   
“Yeah,” Robin said. “Let’s just say tomorrow might be a busy day but for now do you want to finish what we started?”  
“More than anything.” 

THE END


End file.
